When You See a Fork in the Road, Take It!
People use quotes in books to illustrate a point. I use them in my trainings. People perk up when you show them a quote. Especially, when I ask: “Would anyone like to learn how to figure out the person behind the quote?” One way is to uncover the person’s...
My Odyssey in Reaching for Calm
1. My Odyssey. When I am in trouble, I reach for calm. When I need to be alert, I reach for calm. Calm is not only associated with a state of relaxation. It is also a crucial ingredient for managing troubled waters. When you are in the clutches of fear or...
Where Magic Can Happen. Part 2: Embracing Opportunities
1. Prologue. “If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later!” Richard Branson In Part 1, I told stories about leaving your comfort zone to explore opportunities. In Part 2, I...
Where Magic Can Happen. Part 1: Opportunities
The Magic. My son Daniel and his girlfriend went to a hip hop dance class. Daniel went with some trepidation since he felt a bit shy and did not know what to expect. The instructor started the class by pointing to something he had written on a blackboard....
Learning Behavior Patterns from Newspaper Stories
You have a craving for ice cream. So you go out late one night and bring home a container of Talenti Gelato. At home, you discover you can’t unscrew the top, even after trying for many hours. I’ll use this situation and others to help illustrate patterns...
Three Doors into Summer: Bringing one World to Bear on Another
Introduction “While still a kitten, all fluff and buzzes, Pete had worked out a simple philosophy. I was in charge of quarters, rations, and weather; he was in charge of everything else. But he held me especially responsible for weather. Connecticut...
Being Someone Else and the Game of the Gatekeepers
Being “I have always wanted to be someone else.” Imagine that as the title of a memoir. Is it a story about a schizophrenic, about years in psychiatric hospitals, or perhaps about living in the vivid fantasy world of a Walter Mitty? For me, at this time of my life, it...
How I was Drawn into Modeling the Classic Maya Collapse
Finding Modeling Projects Do I find modeling projects, or do they find me? (updated December 19, 2019) The former was true when I was looking for PhD thesis subjects in the early 1970s. Often in graduate training, a person’s thesis adviser would assign his students a...
Mapping Resources for Learning, Teaching and Modeling
I do two activities to relax, one is to solve mathematics problems and the other is to create resource maps. “Resource maps” are diagrams (and models) that define, capture, explain, and illustrate relationships between key concepts. They can be concept maps, mind...
A Satellite with an Attitude Problem
“High school students could do a better job!” a NASA executive said to us after the launch of the Solar Maximum Mission satellite (SMM). He was angry because the satellite could not tell us its attitude, which is satellite-lingo for how was it is oriented within its...
Pascal is a master modeler, who has modeled physical phenomena, satellite motion, and the behavior of people, organizations, and corporations.
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